Tag: #HolySpirit

So I spend a fair amount of time on social media partially for myself and partially to promote this blog and I follow a lot of Catholic media personalities and groups.

And while I am all for some awesome Catholic culture brimming with youth on fire with the New Evangelization, I confess I think there are some places where it looks a little too much like the mainstream culture. Shiny graphics, websites, talented speakers, large followings… This is a primarily good thing and a lot of work and talent goes into these pages, events, conferences, etc. However, it has one bad thing in common with the culture and that is that it’s hands off. While a post, a Tweet, or a link to a thought-provoking reflection could all have positive benefits, in my opinion it is missing the clincher, the thing that I really think would solidify its efforts to truly evangelize the common man: ordinary Catholic people.

I understand that the goal of evangelization is to have a broad reach but it should be more than a marketing campaign attempting to sell you an enthusiastic cultural Catholicism complete with people you can follow, pages you can like, and (most likely) a rosary of some kind. Marketing has its place, I do a lot of it at my job and in my personal life, but I’ve always viewed it with a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to religion because it leaves you in danger of building a brand instead of a kingdom.

In fact, the most effective evangelization I’ve ever participated in was a downtown area with a large group of ordinary Catholic people of all different ages. There was some singing with basic instrumental accompaniment, some conversation, lots of laughter, and yes, some people were passing out rosaries. But there was something special that made us attractive to passersby and that was our camaraderie. Ordinary friendship infused with the love of God. And it was effective because people actually started opening up to us and wanted to be a part of what was happening.

It actually surprised me. I had braced myself for hostility and the very real possibility that we might be asked to leave because the area I was living in at the time was highly intellectual and extremely agnostic/atheistic. I honestly thought people might even protest our presence because the event was sponsored by the visiting Dominican brothers from their House of Studies in Washington D.C. and they were there in full habit. However, the longer I was there the more I realized that people are more hungry for love than they admit. Nothing fancy, not a cause, just simple, genuine love that expresses itself not in grand gestures but by listening, caring, and most of all just being there for the other person.

And I tell you what I met a lot of people that night. I invited one guy to sing with me and he actually accepted the invitation. Another guy had just lost his mother who had apparently prayed the rosary devoutly and he took one to help him with the grieving process because he had not been practicing his faith without her. It absolutely astounded me how much people wanted to share, and it struck me how few outlets there are for that in our modern world where life is so undervalued and lived in pieces instead of in full.

But before you think the night was quiet and solemn, I should confess that for our final song my sassy Dominican friend chose “He’s got the world in His Hands” and for each verse of, “He’s got _____, in His Hands” he had us fill in the blank with a name of a person either in our group or that we had met, and eventually it extended to strangers, and then one guy called his girlfriend so we sang to his raised cell phone (I can’t imagine being on the receiving end of that call).

But those words the world throws around like “good vibes”, “togetherness”, and “peace” are a secularization of what is not secular. It is an incomplete imitation of a deeper reality that transcends the purely material world they operate in and it stems from a desire to experience what I experienced that night: a profound moment of discovering God in one’s neighbors, a recognition of their humanity that comes paradoxically because the stranger is not merely human but has the spark of the Divine. And once you catch that spark it becomes a flame and before you know it the Holy Spirit is alive in everyone present and hearts start to change as everyone remembers who they really are and where they really came from even if they can’t quite articulate it yet.

And it kills me that sometimes Christians get so overloaded with causes and movements and the stress of trying to make people cultural Christians that we forget the simplicity and power of Jesus, the One who had all the power of the world at His feet and chose to be a servant, to be there for people wherever they happened to be in life because He loved them. This happy servitude really rocks the very foundations of the world because it defies the worldly hallmarks of power, politics, domination, progress and everything that revolves around the self and instead chooses a life of love which revolves around others.

And when we saw this mystery unfold downtown that night and watched everything come together we believed like little children that He’s Got the Whole World in His hands because we saw the world transform into a playground and strangers transform into a family and the only thing that matched our awe was our joy.

And I can hardly imagine what the world would be like if this began to extend beyond my tiny downtown area. All I know is I’d very much like to see it.

I had a really interesting chat with a friend the other day who has been wrestling with her faith in God. She was raised Catholic like me but she often struggles to feel worthy, as if she’s “not good enough” to be Catholic. I spent a good chunk of my life feeling that way too, struggling with feelings of rejection and wondering if anyone, God included, would love the real me that hides behind my persona and can’t be perfect all the time. This same friend told me that I was very blessed because she could tell through her ordinary interactions me that God had given me His presence and “the proof that no path I take is wrong as long as I keep my eyes on Him.”

She is absolutely right. God has given me an incredible gift in giving me Himself. But there was one problem in her reasoning. She thought it was because I am worthy. Let me be the first to assure you that I am not. I do believe that God loves me tremendously, but not because I am good, because He is good.

So many people read this blog and they respond with something like intrigue because they see a more personal, less lofty side of God where He is not just my God, but my ever-present adventure buddy. Because while God by His nature is mysterious, it does not follow that He is unrelatable. I think that was sort of the point of Jesus coming to earth in the first place, to fix people’s perceptions of God and show us that God is for us, not against us. He wants to enter personally into every part of our lives and meet us exactly where we are. He’s our Father and He has a deep desire to share Himself with us too, as He walks us up the stairway to Heaven.

Every single person born on earth matters to God. There is absolutely no one He does not love or from whom He would withhold His grace. The Bible itself says, “ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). That’s why patience is such a virtue because the more you persist in this endeavor, the stronger your presence of God will become as He reveals Himself to you, and this revelation is unique to each person. No two people have the same experience of God because He is infinite, and the relationship that develops through the mutual revelation of selves is as personal and unique as you are. By this same line of reasoning, you can rest assured that God truly wants a relationship with you because you are literally irreplaceable to Him.

And I wanted to bring this up because a surprising amount of people I encounter, even those with no discernable religion, tell me they want to have what I have.

You can.

Don’t let lies about worthiness stand in your way. Take it! Seize it! Pursue it and be not afraid! To pursue God is the adventure not just of a lifetime, but of an eternity. A journey that transcends time itself because, while the world tells you to make the most of your limitations and your limited time on earth, God calls you to conquer them by receiving His redemptive love and being raised up to meet His own Self, not as His servant but as His son or daughter.

And I admit I get tired of taking the credit for anything you may have found worthy of praise on this blog. Because only God is worthy of praise and if you saw something that deeply moved you or resonated with you even a little, it wasn’t me you were looking at, you caught a glimpse of God. God breaking through the barriers of your everyday life and silently speaking to you. To that special place inside your soul where only you and He are able to dwell. And I beg you also to keep your eyes on Him, because the look always comes before the leap into that unknown space, and I am certain that you will find everything you are searching for there with Him.